It's Coming...

Scythes 2011

Yes that’s right; the main event for the foresters of the Wimpole Estate is almost upon us! This weekend is the annual Scything Festival weekend. We’ve been hard at work this week setting up and getting ready for the big weekend. All hands to the pump so far with most of us coming in on extra days to help out where we can and make sure everything’s ready to go.

As a bonus we have a work experience lad in this week too, not quite sure how he’s handling the chaos but he seems in good spirits and eager to help. Tom is his name and it’s not short for Thomas either, as I found out today! Jim was in on Monday to get the ball rolling and many of the marquees and our own lean-to’s were already up by the time I arrived on Tuesday.

With the boss off that day it was down to some hard work by Tom and I; putting up the other lean-to was especially hard going with just the two of us. That was before I was hunting around for another 6x3 marquee to fill a gap. After obtaining keys and digging the shelter out, not to mention pinching… er, I mean borrowing…the black nobs that screw on top of the uprights; we had it down in the main area ready for erecting. Or as Shane and I have been calling them recently – Nob’eads!

Despite trying to get through my list of jobs for the day (and picking up an extra one to help someone out) I actually learnt something too. Tom taught me the well used Dolly-Hitch, often tied to secure down things on to our trailer (why? ‘cos it don’t have no back hatch to it and things tend to fall out!). They’re also handy when putting up tents and shelters to tighten up the guy ropes.

I know it’s impossible to tell reading a blog article but I just wasted 10 minutes trying to find a decent picture of a Dolly Hitch! Man there sure are a lot of knots out there, typically all but the one I’m looking for. Ahh well, if I remember I’ll try and get a picture of one over the next few days and if anyone does actually have a photo of a Dolly Hitch then it’d be most appreciated.

Anyhoo, the rest of Tuesday was spent bringing down the pole lathes, shave horses, hay ricks and various odds and ends ready for when needed. Working with all this cut grass and hay does nothing for hay fever, especially when this donut forgets to take a tablet for it! This was made even worse today as for most of the morning (and some of the afternoon) I was raking up hay.

 

Hey, that's MY spoon!

With the majority of the main area having been set up yesterday, attention was now focused on getting the scything plots ready. The marking up and cutting of the plots in the South Avenue had also been started the day before but there was still the 10x10m and the 5x5m speed plots to cut.

 

Copious amounts of raking was also involved, fortunately our methods have evolved a bit since we first started setting the event up a few years back. Yep, no more scythed measuring tapes and wonky plots! Nothing but state-of-the-art equipment nowadays. By that I mean repaired old tractors, reciprocating mowers borrowed from the Wimpole Gardeners and Jim’s fluorescent lines of string!

So what have we got in store for the weekend? First day (Saturday) is usually the courses. Many of the scything dudes (Honestly, the best way to describe them!) will arrive tomorrow for the weekend ahead. Some will teach courses (I think Mark Allory is one, others I’m not sure on) while most will prepare themselves for the fight ahead!

The obvious one is the scything course, which I think our very own Paul Martin will be on this year. Go Paul! Look forward to how you get on in the competition on the Sunday! I think we also have the usual spoon-making course taught by the above mentioned Mark, as well as… er, actually check our sister site for more details!

Sunday will be the main event. Not only will it be the scything competition but the wine and cider competitions, spoon-making competitions; as well as sheep shearing demonstrations, blacksmithying and much, much more!

So stay tuned for the follow up blog next week, hopefully after we’ve recovered from the constant tasting of the cider competition! You think I’m joking but it’s true! Amazing how many of the judges ‘just had to try that one again’!

The photos are my own for a change, but from 2011. A taster if you will for the weekend…

2011 Winners